Ireland's population is now over 5.5m

The latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show increasing numbers of older people living in Ireland and falling numbers of children.

They also reveal a drop in the number of immigrants coming to Ireland over the past year, but mark five consecutive years in which Ireland has seen over 100,000 immigrants make this country their home.

Overall, the CSO said that net inward migration over the past 12 months accounted for 72% of Ireland’s population growth, while a natural increase of births versus deaths accounted for 28%.

Conor J Crowley, statistician in population estimates and projections, said: “Ireland’s population was estimated to be 5.526million, rising by 66,900 people in the 12-month period to April 2026.”

Of these people, 4,594,600 are Irish citizens, while 931,000 are not.

This time last year, Ireland had seen its population rise by 78,300, meaning that the pace of expansion is slowing.

Mr Crowley said: “Looking at where people reside, the proportion of the population living in Dublin rose from 28.3% of the total in 2020 to 28.9% of the total in 2026 and stood at 1,597,700 people in April 2026.”

Seven counties of the mideast, southwest and Dublin regions – Dublin, Kildare, Meath, Wicklow, Louth, Cork and Kerry – together made up 57.5% of the population in April 2026, with 3,179,000 people.

The region with the fewest people was the midlands, with 339,400 inhabitants.

This was followed by the border (447,600), southeast (485,400), west (531,100) and midwest (543,000) regions.

There were fewer than a million (992,400) people living in Ireland aged 14 and under in April 2026.

This was the first time this age group has fallen to under one million people since 2014.

This age group has had a fall in population share between 2020 and 2026, reducing from 20% to 18% of the total population, in a decrease of 21,300.

At the same time, there were 891,100 people living in Ireland in April 2026 who were aged 65 and over – an increase in population share from 14.4% to 16.1% between 2020 and 2026, or a rise of 165,000 people.

Since 2010, Mr Crowley said, the number of births has continued to decline, with 55,000 people under the age of one now living in Ireland, a decrease of 19,900 people, or 27%, in 16 years.

There were 54,300 births and 35,400 deaths in the 12 months to April 2026, giving a natural increase (births less deaths) in the population of 18,800.

The number of immigrants, or those entering the State, in the 12 months to April 2026 was estimated to be 110,600, while the number of emigrants, or those leaving the State, over the same period was estimated at 62,500.

These combined flows gave an overall positive net migration – meaning more people having arrived than left.

 The latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show increasing numbers of older people living in Ireland and falling numbers of children.
The number of immigrants in the 12 months to April 2026 fell by 14,700 when compared with the previous 12-month period and included 30,200 returning Irish citizens, 20,700 other EU citizens, 4,300 UK citizens, and over 55,000 other citizens.

The number of immigrants from outside Europe and the UK fell by 13% compared with the previous year’s 63,600.

* This article was originally published on BusinessPlus.ie.